


Uncharted Territory

by Tanaqui



Category: Haven - Fandom
Genre: Community: fic_promptly, Episode Tag, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-14
Updated: 2013-10-14
Packaged: 2017-12-29 10:28:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1004319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tanaqui/pseuds/Tanaqui
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Duke doesn't see anything so very wrong with where he's ended up in life. Except when, every now and then, people who get close to him get hurt. Written for <a href="http://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/196801.html?thread=8417985#cmt8417985">a prompt at the fic-promptly comm</a>: <em>Any - any - all the nice girls love a sailor but all the bad girls love a pirate.</em> Set just after <em>1.11 The Trial of Audrey Parker.</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	Uncharted Territory

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Scribbler for the beta.

"Hey."

Duke looked up from the lobster pot he was mending. Audrey was standing on the dock, peering down at him. 

She shoved her hands into her pockets, shoulders hunched. "Mind if I come aboard?"

He waved a hand. _Whatever._

She stepped down on to the deck. "Are you okay?" She was tilting her head, her gaze drifting over the cuts and bruises on his face.

"I'm fine." He bent back to the lobster pot, pulling on the cord he was working at with a little more savagery than strictly necessary.

"And the _Cape Rouge_?" Audrey gestured around her. A glance up under his lashes showed her expression had turned anxious.

"She's fine, too. All pumped out and patched up." Bending the cord in two, he trimmed it short with a jerk of his penknife, before dropping the knife back among the rest of his tools with a sharp clatter.

"How about Julia?" Audrey was looking around her like she didn't really care about the answer, but when she brought her gaze back to meet his, Duke saw she cared very much.

He thrust to his feet, heaving the mended lobster pot with him and dumping it on top of the row stacked on the far side of the deck. Still with his back to Audrey, he said, "You'll have to ask her." He hadn't spoken to Julia since she'd stepped ashore two mornings ago. 

He'd tried: walked half way up the front path of her mother's house yesterday afternoon. She'd opened the door and stood there, arms crossed. The expression on her face told him she wasn't ready to hear what he had to say. Might never be ready. 

He'd given her a nod and walked away.

"I already did." Audrey's voice, closer than expected, startled him from the memory. Startled him again when she added, "I'm sorry. I should have told her."

He turned and peered down at her, brows raised. "Told her what?"

"That I was investigating those guys. That they were... trouble." Audrey gave him a rueful smile.

Duke pushed past her and began to snatch up the tools he'd been using, collecting them together. "She was on my boat. What else did she expect?" 

"I think..." Audrey turned, resting one hand on the rail of the companionway up to the bridge, the other still thrust into her jeans pocket. "...she was looking forward to spending a fun evening with a guy she'd had a crush on since High School."

That was the problem, wasn't it? Julia had come home and expected Haven and everyone in it to have stood still. And he'd come back changed from a wild kid with a few juvenile misdemeanors on his rap sheet into someone who delivered boxes for the kind of money that made it very clear they contained items that couldn't be sent using Fedex.

Throwing the tools back into the toolbox, Duke banged the lid shut. "All the nice girls love a sailor...?" He didn't bother to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. This was one thing Audrey and her relentlessly upbeat attitude weren't going to be able to fix.

"...but all the bad girls like a pirate?" Audrey was scuffing her shoe along the deck, but she offered him a smile that made it hard for him to stay mad at her. Especially when he was mostly mad at himself for putting her and Julia in danger by inviting those punks onto his boat in the first place. 

Audrey's smile turned into a grin as she added, "Guess that makes me a bad girl...." 

"Nah." Duke finished stowing the toolbox. He returned the grin. "You are pretty bad-ass, though."

Audrey laughed, apparently a little embarrassed by the compliment. She stared out across the water, gently beating her hand against the rail. "But I should have told Julia. And you. I'm sorry." She sighed. "Mind you, Agent Howard said trusting you to help me out with... what I do made me a bad FBI agent. Guess that's part of why I quit." 

She brought her gaze back to Duke as he gaped at her. "You quit?" 

"Uh-huh." She shrugged. "I'm taking Chief Wuornos up on his offer to join Haven PD."

Duke snorted. Great. Even more chance for Nathan to turn her against him. Though he wasn't sorry she was staying in Haven. "Guess you still shouldn't be talking to me, then?" he muttered.

"Probably not." She pushed off from the rail and sashayed past him. "Still reckon I'm a bad girl, though, and you heard what they say about bad girls...." 

She raised a hand in parting as she stepped on to the dock, not looking back. Duke stood staring after her, hoping she meant what he thought she meant. Hoping she was going to go on having an inexplicable liking for pirates, just like he seemed to be developing an inexplicable liking for cops.


End file.
